OW2

Their core work

OW2 is a Paris-based open-source software community and industry consortium that promotes collaborative development of enterprise middleware, cloud platforms, and developer tools. In H2020 projects, they serve as the bridge between open-source communities and research consortia — providing real-world open-source infrastructure for testing, validating, and distributing research software outputs. Their practical contribution centers on software ecosystem analysis, automated testing amplification, code documentation, and building marketplaces and platforms that help research results reach actual users. They bring deep knowledge of how open-source software supply chains work, from package management to community adoption.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

OW2's early H2020 work (2015-2017) focused on open-source distribution infrastructure and service-oriented architectures — projects like AppHub (marketplace) and CHOReVOLUTION (service choreography) were about getting software out to users and connecting services. From 2017 onward, their focus shifted decisively toward understanding software at a deeper level: analyzing dependency graphs, mining developer knowledge from repositories, applying formal methods and NLP to code comprehension, and treating software ecosystems as analyzable networks. This reflects a maturation from "distributing open-source software" to "understanding and securing open-source software supply chains" — a topic that has become critically important industry-wide.

OW2 is moving toward software supply chain analysis and AI-assisted code comprehension — areas with growing demand as open-source dependency risks gain attention across industries.

How they like to work

OW2 participates exclusively as a partner, never as coordinator, which is consistent with their role as a community organization that contributes infrastructure and open-source expertise to technically-led consortia. With 43 unique partners across 14 countries in just 7 projects, they operate as a well-connected hub — averaging over 6 distinct partners per project and rarely repeating the same consortium. This makes them an accessible, low-friction partner: they know how EU projects work, they bring a ready-made community of open-source developers, and they don't compete for the scientific leadership role.

OW2 has built a broad European network spanning 43 partners across 14 countries, reflecting their role as a pan-European open-source consortium. Their partnerships are diverse rather than concentrated, connecting them to universities, research institutes, and tech companies across Western and Southern Europe.

What sets them apart

OW2 occupies a rare niche: they are an independent, non-profit open-source consortium that can serve as the "community channel" for any EU research project producing software. Unlike a university or SME that brings a specific technical capability, OW2 brings an entire ecosystem — a community of developers, an established governance model for open-source projects, and practical experience in getting research software adopted by real users. For consortium builders, partnering with OW2 means your project's software outputs have a credible path to sustainability beyond the project's end date.

Highlights from their portfolio

• FASTEN
  Addressed the increasingly critical topic of software supply chain security by modeling software ecosystems as fine-grained dependency networks — directly relevant to current industry concerns about open-source vulnerabilities.
• STAMP
  Largest single EC contribution to OW2 (EUR 488,390) focused on automated software testing amplification — a key capability for improving software quality at scale.
• DECODER
  Combined formal methods with NLP for automated code documentation — an early example of applying AI techniques to developer productivity, before the current wave of AI coding tools.